MoonGirl – Love of Lifetime Learning

June 8, 2020June 2, 2020

The Joys of Outdoor Play

MoonGirl loves the outdoors. I call her my little wild child because she likes nothing better than to be digging through the dirt. We spend time every day either taking walks, running around our front lawn, or playing in the back yard. The above photo is her box of outdoor toys. I like that they encourage open-ended play.

But most of the time, MoonGirl prefers to just improvise with the random things she finds lying around.

She’ll find empty icecube trays and fill them with dirt, sticks, and rocks based on her own criteria.

Or she’ll line up clothespins in-between the slats of our wooden picnic table.

Or she’ll fill up a sifter with her chosen pebbles.

I find it fascinating to see how her mind works. Aside from the toys, I didn’t give her anything for a specific task or project. She found them herself and improvised her own type of outdoor play. And it keeps her occupied for long periods of time, more than can be said for other more structured play.

It’s also a great way of working all her senses, improving her fine and gross motor skills, improving her focus as well as her imaginative thinking, and giving her the first inklings of quantity and size comparisons. There are other more-structured activities we do together that focus on these, but I find it it more satisfying when she creates for herself.

Most of all, she looks so content playing this way.

It reminds me to find imaginative ways to play and create to enrich my own life and fill it with contentment. Learning doesn’t always have to come from the grind of bookish studies or a specific set of classes. Sometimes, it’s enough to “mess” around and see what happens.

May 6, 2020May 6, 2020

Pre-schooling by Un-schooling

One of the things I have always wanted, even before MoonGirl was born, was to give homeschooling a chance. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my husband and I have had experience in both public and private schools, and I have friends who have experienced both the benefits and drawbacks of homeschooling. While we had good schooling experiences in general, my husband and I have discussed some of our reservations about traditional schooling, and we felt that our own interests and knowledge were diverse enough that we could feasibly provide a well-rounded education at up to a 5th-grade level (around 10 years old).

Now that MoonGirl is over two and a half years old, I’ve started thinking about how to move ahead with her schooling. I have been going back and forth as to whether or not to homeschool, because I didn’t want to become too ambitious and not be able to provide a good quality education and stressing us all out in the end. So, my husband and I have come to an agreement that we would homeschool MoonGirl from the ages of 3 to 5 (traditional preschool through TK). And, if it goes well, we will continue on. If it’s an utter disaster, we would put her in the best school near us.

So, where to begin? I didn’t want something too rigorous. I am a big believer that children learn the best through unstructured play, which has been supported by various studies. MoonGirl is also my little wild child, who does the best when she’s outside and interacting with nature rather than sitting still in her room, so I wanted there to be a focus on the outdoors. Finally, I wanted a secular curriculum for personal reasons. I’ve researched various homeschooling philosophies such as Charlotte Mason, Reggio Emilia, and Classical homeschool, which all had various aspects that appealed to me. However, the curriculum that spoke most deeply to me is Unschooling (here’s a good introduction), or child-directed schooling, in which the curriculum follows and is informed by the child’s interests.

Now, I personally need structure in my life so that I know how best to direct my limited time and energy, so I’m instead doing a modified version of unschooling in that there are certain goals I want to meet with MoonGirl (though she will not know which goals I have set, so as to keep it more child-directed), and we will work within the activities she is most drawn to in order to reach for those goals. I will discuss how I came up with my “curriculum” as well as why unschooling is so appealing to me in future posts.

March 16, 2020May 6, 2020

Virtual Library Storytimes

Due to us trying to practice social distancing and staying at home as much as possible, along with all of MoonGirl’s activities cancelled until further notice, I’ve been trying to liven up the days with different activities. My sister send me a link on Instagram where the Los Angeles Public Library is doing virtual storytimes, which is amazing (especially as we’ve been regular storytime attendees at our local library)! I’ve put a few on for MoonGirl, and she is fascinated. When they do activities such as scarves or egg shakers, MoonGirl has her own scarf (from my closet) and maraca to play along. I think this is such a great idea, not just for those stuck at home, but also in the future to bring storytime to kids who may not be able to go to storytime because of distance or time constraints. There are also lots of storytimes on Youtube, if you’re interested. It’s become our daily routine.